A water-worn boulder marked with an C8th ringed cross in Iona Abbey museum, Argyll: a gravestone popularly known as St Columba's Pillow.
A water-worn boulder marked with an C8th ringed cross in Iona Abbey museum: an Early Christian grave-marker popularly known as St Columba's Pillow. In his Life of St Columba, Adomnan (Adamnan) says that Columba slept on a rock-cut bed with a boulder as a pillow which was then used to mark his grave. Columba died on Iona in 597, Adomnan wrote the Life c 688-92, the ring-cross is C8th at the earliest & was discovered further away from the abbey than the traditional site of Columba's burial, so is unlikely to be his pillow, but the cross could have been added later & an earlier special stone re-used. The iron cage was made in the C19th to protect the stone.
Size: 4961px × 3722px
Location: St Columba's Pillow, Iona Abbey Museum, Iona, Argyll, Scotland, UK
Photo credit: © Mick Sharp / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
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